Foreign countries including Norway and Oman contributed to former President Bill Clinton's charity, and donors including Donald Trump, multinational soft drink company Coca-Cola and singer Elton John's foundation also pitched in as Hillary Rodham Clinton served her first year as secretary of state.

The collective wealth of Britain's 1,000 richest people went up by nearly 15 percent last year, and more than half the country's 75 billionaires are foreign-born, according to a list published by the Sunday Times newspaper.

A Russian company run by one of the world's richest men announced Friday that it will buy the Sparrows Point steel mill from a rival billionaire for hundreds of millions of dollars less than once sought.

The ascension of Indian-born leaders like Vikram Pandit, the new CEO of Citigroup Inc., tracks the economic rise of their home country, once seen by U.S. business as a large market and a source of low-cost technology workers, now viewed as a business power that rivals the U.S. in some industries.

This year, the country's priciest properties include William Randolph Hearst's $165 million Beverly Hills, Calif., mansion; a $135 million Aspen, Colo., ranch; and a $125 million Versailles-inspired estate in Beverly Hills, Calif.

Call it quaint, but there was a time when a $75 million house made news. In 2005, that's what happened when the Three Ponds Estate in Bridgehampton N.Y., landed at the top of our list of most expensive homes in the USA.

What does a billionaire do when having a private jet becomes so affordable that mere millionaires can swing the cost? He trades upto a Boeing 747-8, say, or to a Airbus 380costing $280 million and $300 million, respectively.